Table of Contents

HOWTO articles - Security

Securing your computer is an ongoing process. The following guides will help you secure your Slackware installation, be it for server, workstation or laptop needs. Make sure you subscribe to the slackware-security mailing list. All security announcements since 1999 are available on http://www.slackware.com/security/.

This section contains articles related to securing your Slackware based system and network.

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File System Security

Overview of Security HOWTOS

Enabling Encrypted Swap
When available memory drops below a certain point, the Linux kernel will swap the contents of memory pages to swap space.
This content may include sensitive information such as passwords, usernames, PINS, banking or other identity information. This data is usually in plain text and so can be read without effort. Encrypting the system swap space protects its contents against unauthorized access and attack should access to the hard drive be compromised or physically remov…

Enabling Secure Boot on Slackware
On Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) based hardware, a system can operate in Secure Boot mode. In Secure Boot mode, only EFI binaries (i.e. boot managers, boot loaders) that are trusted by the platform owner, either explicitly or via a chain of trust, are allowed to run at boot time. This prevents unauthorised EFI binaries and operating systems from running on your system, which can improve security.

hosts.allow, hosts.deny
These two files in /etc are a common place for storing rules about who you want to allow to connect to the services on your machine.
While a firewall can be considered as hiding a door, these files control who is allowed to open the door.

Installing Tor Using a SlackBuild Script
Overview
From torproject.org:
Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.

OpenVPN
OpenVPN is an open source software application that implements virtual private network (VPN) techniques for creating secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections in routed or bridged configurations and remote access facilities. It uses a custom security protocol that utilizes SSL/TLS for key exchange. It is capable of traversing network address translators (NATs) and firewalls. It was written by James Yonan and is published under the GNU General Public License (

Improving OpenSSH security
OpenSSH is the swiss-army knife of remote-access programs: it provides you with a shell on your distant machine, and transmits data in a secure and encrypted way - including commands, file transfer, X11 and VNC sessions, rsync data, etc.

How to use SSH keys to connect without a password.
OpenSSH is a very secure way to connect remotely to a Slackware machine. But the easiest way to use SSH is to use its key facility.
The concept of public/private keys can be hard to explain, we will try to go through it in as simple a manner as possible.